Podcast: What do fonts have to do with data protection?

The jungle of legal requirements when building a website is now becoming even more dense for website operators: In a ruling dated 20 January 2022 ( Case 3 O 17493/20), the Regional Court of Munich I decided that the use of dynamic fonts without a corresponding legal basis from the GDPR can lead to a claim for damages by the data subject. Based on this ruling, research assistants Nicolas John and Justin Rennert discuss the data protection risks of integrating dynamic fonts into a website and provide an outlook on the consequences for users.

If you would like to take a closer look at the ruling and its consequences, you will find an article on this topic in DFN-Infobrief Recht 3/2022.

46. Legal Seminar of the Forschungsstelle Recht im DFN

On 13 and 14 June, the semi-annual general meeting of the DFN-Verein took place in Berlin. Research assistants Johanna Schaller and Nicolas John, representing the Forschungsstelle Recht im DFN, shed light on various legal issues during the following legal seminar. Nicolas John opened the legal seminar with his lecture on the new TTDSG and the omnipresent cookie banners on websites. He explored the question of whether the new regulations of the TTDSG will soon make cookie banners obsolete and whether the TTDSG can also cope with new tracking technologies. Johanna Schaller then first presented the new norms of civil law on digital content and how these can affect universities. Then, in another topic, she explained the functionality and basic legal principles of electronic signatures and discussed which signature is suitable for which applications. The discussions with the audience that accompanied the presentations showed that digitisation at universities and research institutions still raises many questions. The Forschungsstelle Recht would like to thank the participants for their lively interest and the enriching exchange.

 

The good spirit leaves – the bakery of H1

For decades, students and professors have bought cereal bars, sandwiches and cappuccinos from her: Annette Söltenfuß and her husband Josef kept them all well supplied, the lawyers, economists, Germanists and philosophers around the H1. Their little bakery on H1 was an important meeting place for the whole university five days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Klöneck, literature meeting place, quiet zone – but not for much longer: in July, her husband and she will retire and mainly take care of their grandchild. During the transition period, she will still help out the new owner. But she is also looking forward to newfound leisure – but: she will sorely miss the ITM.

 

The ITM seminar in Vienna

In cooperation with the Chair for Innovation and Digitalisation in Law headed by Prof. Dr. Forgó from the University of Vienna and under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren (Institute for Information, Telecommunications and Media Law, University of Münster), the seminar “Comparison between German and Austrian Internet Law” took place on 9 and 10 June 2022.

As part of a pilot project, each German student was assigned an Austrian student to enable a comparative law exchange. The participants were invited to the impressive premises of the Presseclub Concordia in Vienna for their presentations. In their presentations, the students dealt with current legal issues in the field of internet law in a comparative law context. The topics dealt with included, for example, abuse supervision for digital corporations or questions about the digital estate as well as the effects of the new DSA and DMA. The exciting presentations were followed by stimulating discussions.

Valuable additions to the contributions were made by Dr Salomonowitz, who reported on practical experiences from the life of an intellectual property lawyer.

Prof. Hoeren and Prof. Forgó are pleased with the successful event and would like to thank Dr. Salamonowitz and all participants for the excellent seminar days in Vienna! Further cooperation with the University of Vienna is being planned.

 

ITM specialisation prolonged until end of summer term 2024

The ITM specialisation will be extended until the end of the 2024 summer semester and then discontinued as such. It will then be replaced by a new specialisation “Digitalisation, AI and Law” to be designed by the faculty.

The additional ITM training courses will continue until the summer semester of 2023, when a new additional ITM training on the law of the digital economy will begin, with a new profile and new emphases. All ITM supplementary training courses take place on a hybrid basis and are aimed at a nationwide audience of students, trainees or practitioners from the legal profession, business and administration. You can all look forward to the new concept of our additional training courses!

Chancellor’s Forum of the DFN-Verein

On May 23rd and 24th, research assistants Nicolas John and Owen Mc Grath participated in the Chancellor’s Forum of the DFN-Verein. The program opened on Monday evening with a keynote speech on the  Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastrukur (NFDI) by Prof. York Sure-Vetter. During a joint dinner, there were lively discussions on the current topics of digitization of universities between university chancellors from all over Germany and the representatives of the DFN-Verein. On Tuesday, the topics of identity management at universities and security operations at DFN-Verein were highlighted by various presentations. After more detailed explanations on the new framework agreements for video conferencing software, Mr. Mc Grath and Mr. John, representing the Forschungstelle Recht im DFN, concluded with contributions on the legal classification of plagiarism software and the effects of the TTDSG on cookie banners. The Forschungsstelle Recht thanks for the invitation and the lively participation as well as the enriching exchange.

Podcast: DMA and DSA – EU institutions agree on “digital constitution”

After politically contentious negotiations, the EU Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers agreed on final versions of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) in March and April 2022. The DMA is intended to regulate large online platforms and open them up to competition. The DSA serves, among other things, to combat illegal content on the internet. Some commentators even see these legislative packages as a new “digital constitution” at the European level. In this episode of “Weggeforscht”, research assistants Owen McGrath and Justin Rennert give an overview of the diverse regulations of the legislative packages in their final version.